Melodies
by Lady Nightspike
Summary: FFIX drabble project: written while playing the game! Tone, characters, genre vary. 13: Branhe's pov Quick updates! I will write you one if you review/request!
1. 1

Part of a new project: play FFIX and write drabbles based on the gameplay. Rather than long updates, I've chosen quick: I have several of these written so far, and I'm in the middle of Disc 1 (got distracted by Tetra Master in Lindblum for now).

Drabbles will be 'numbered' or 'classed' according to character viewpoint. Drabbles may be slightly out of order. Please review! FFIX doesn't get enough love, and reviews will help me finish this project.

All pairings are possible--note that continuity is not necessarily supposed.

1

The palace's red curtains. The scent of freedom—just out of her reach.

What excitement lies beyond those fluttering fabrics? She doesn't know; Branhe and Beatrix and all the guards and maids and servants keep it from her. Wrapped in flattery as though it is another fancy dress...bound in lace, but bound nevertheless. She is.

Yet at her core is excitement, and love, and contentment—her world is secure. She will lose this core, as she journeys onwards, but it will be replaced by something much more valuable.

* * *

Please review! Especially if you have snippet ideas. I'm willing to write one for you!


	2. a

Requests: by character or theme. Both can be specified if you want!

* * *

a

What is 'I Want To Be Your Canary' anyway? Vivi wonders—

Blam!

Seventh time today. And he hasn't even arrived at the play yet.

Straightening his hat. It's a happy kind of life, if one doesn't mind the gil that draws pickpockets and the shoes that don't fit right and the constant accidents...

Wham!

Eighth time.

* * *

I don't own FFIX. If I did, Kuja would get more screen time because his music is awesome, and Tetra Master would have a point... :-)


	3. 2

2

Little does she know that 'Canary' will soon be _her _story.

* * *

Has anyone done the Excalibur II run-through? I'm _not_ that crazy. I think.


	4. 3

3

It's the play's fault...all that wanderlust, that romance. Or maybe the argument with her mother, dropping the dreaded 'm' word. She's only just turned sixteen.

Gestalt happpens all at once. Today it is. And that hood, those clothes (thanks to Steiner, who has unwittingly foiled his own plans once again)...and it's so easy, while the Queen's attention is on the flashing swordplay and fake magic, to concoct some adventure of her own.

* * *

Still don't own.


	5. alpha

I don't own Steiner. He is too awesome. xD

_alpha_

Eight unclothed Knights of Pluto. Steiner sighs.

They've gone so far backwards, in strength and glory, like a decrepit old man who was once Achilles and now is dying in fertile Phthia, dying while Helen and her entourage of Muses wields a sword. Steiner expects them to remove the statue from the square any day now—though perhaps it is fitting, crumbled and pitted and covered in pigeon crap.

He doesn't know what will give out first, his heart, or his stomach.

"No! Search for the Princess!" he orders Weimar, who has been using his clothesless time to hit on one of the new soldiers.

"The Princess?" he echoes, bewildered. Since when was it their duty to guard the Princess?

Steiner might not look it, but inside he is crying like a little boy.


	6. 4

And again.

4

No Alexandrian woman is _that_ untrained, you know, Garnet thinks coolly as she swings away from the flabbergasted player and the knight who is currently screaming her name from the top of the other tower.

* * *

This is one of my favorite moments from the game. "PRINCESS!!!!!!!"


	7. Goblin

Replaying the game has made me realize what a little scoundrel Zidane is. xD Feeling Garnet up as they escaped was hilarious!

I totally own FFIX. And by that I mean, NOT.

* * *

_Goblin_

This one's jumpier than an oglop, he thinks disgustedly as he races past the band.

And she wants to be kidnapped. He wonders briefly if you can kidnap the willing, but then she smiles and the job is complete (with improvisations mind you) and her smile is like a warm fire in the dark. She touches his hand once, and it's all he needs for the fire to spread lazily through his veins.

He wonders if she gets tired of being reminded that she's pretty. He suspects _he_ never will.


	8. Tantalus for yvisama

For Yvi-sama: this turned out waaay longer than I expected! Hope you like it though.

Review response: thanks for the feedback! I structured my updates this way because I thought it would baffle people otherwise due to changes in POV. But I will try to elongate some of the shorter snippets when I'm updating (and I usually update in pairs).

Also, Cinna is probably the least effective attacker in all of FF, and I'm including doll, paintbrush, and staff women, along with that guy with the cards who isn't Gambit and Quina. :-) HE HAS A HAMMER. HAMMERS ARE SUPPOSED TO SMASH THINGS? Cinna's hammer is only effective for giving out less than sincere pats-on-the-back.

* * *

"Why don't they hafta carry anything?" Marcus grumbled.

"Because _they_ have their _instruments_," Cinna said snidely.

The band struck up a marching tune as the Troupe started out of the forest.

"Just pretend it's a play!" Baku barked. "And, before we go, you gotta remember the most important part!"

Cinna and Marcus leaned forward, intent on hearing their boss's advice.

"SHUT YER MOUTHS!" Baku yelled, causing both of them to fall all over themselves.

***

"No, no, no!" Marcus and Cinna were at it again, Baku thought, rolling his eyes at the Heterosexual Life Couple. "You've gotta learn how to make 'em pay!"

The goblins didn't seem very interested in 'paying', even with Cinna's hammer making repeated contact with their skulls. Baku sighed and strode forward, unsheathing his sword. "Quit yer whinin' and squabblin' and fight like—"

"Watch out, boss!"

Baku let out a thundering sneeze at just the right moment, propelling him forward, away from the goblin's backstab. Cinna whapped it again. While it stood there, dazed (was it supposed to be insulted by Cinna's attack? It wasn't sure) Baku whipped around, decapitating it.

"Like men," Baku finished, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

***

He still remembered the time that Zidane had left.

Left, he claimed, to find out about his family, the other family…as if Baku's care and guidance wasn't enough? It had stung on so many levels, and he had really only sorted it out when Zidane had slunk back, tail in between his legs.

(As though Baku had failed him. As though he were second best to a family that cleared neither wanted him nor cared for him, when—)

But he understood it enough: because this time, he had let him go.

***

"We gotta do something!" Zennero and Bennero grunted in agreement. "We can't just leave him here!" Marcus' fist quivered against the sky, expressive and futile.

Baku sat down, square in the dirt, at the edge of the forest. He thought long and hard about sending Blank off after Zidane, about how Zidane was alive and Blank was…not.

He didn't regret a thing.

* * *

Yay! I haven't been able to play because of school. but, I still have a few of these up my sleeve AND I'm about to leave Lindblum. Please R&R! Again, if you leave a prompt, I will give you a present!


	9. beta

This is dedicated to everyone who has reviewed, regardless of whether they requested one or not. :-) Don't be shy! If there's some moment you want me to ponder, let me know!

* * *

_Beta_

Defeated by oglops.

That is, there's a reason the Knights aren't respected. He can't even respect himself.


	10. gamma

Steiner. Garnet.

* * *

_Gamma_

It's onstage the concept first comes, marrying the Princess. Marrying the...?

?!

Briefly it flashes before him, a delicate white dress and his best armor. No rust.

_Never_.


	11. b

b

Fourteen times today, but the first someone has asked him if he's okay.

Later on, he will understand: it's the smallest bits of kindness that are the best. And their team is made of it—every time he stumbles, they pick him back up.

* * *

Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivi!!!!!

Omake: "PRINCESS!" Steiner roared. "PRINCESS!!!"

Zidane smiled. He could keep up with the princess, even if Rusty couldn't. Twelve seconds later, a hysterical Knight of Pluto plummeted to the ground. clawing at the air as though it could sustain him.

CLUNK.

Zidane and Garnet both winced. It was like that time a stowaway Mu had made it onboard the Prima Vista; Blank had caught it by its tail accidentally and swung it around, finally releasing it. The racket had woken Baku--a heroic feat--and Zidane had nearly fallen off the side laughing.

This sound, though, was more like the sound an apple core made when thrown into a garbage can. Appropriate, Zidane thought through his mirth: except this time the apple was _wearing _the can.


	12. For holy blader ice cavern

For Holy Blader: thanks for your kind review! I hope this came out okay.

* * *

Surreal.

If it weren't for the near-paralyzing coldness of the caverns, Garnet would have trouble believing this was something more than a fantasy. The strangeness of her travel companions only added to that—Steiner, faithfully trudging behind her, helping her when she slipped; Vivi, so in need of his own knight's guiding hand; and the thief with a tail, still cheery despite obviously being cold, who was leading the way.

But despite the fact that she was going to be sick after this, despite the fact that weird monsters kept attacking them, (or maybe because of those things), the beauty of the ice cavern was absolutely undiminished. It held the secrets of scholars, the mystique of players, and the beauty of artists in its hands. Ethereal, it reminded her of the legend of Alexander, protector of Men, who was turned into a divine being and tasked with guarding the city. Garnet had always loved the part where his body radiated with light and the wings sprouted from his shoulders…

That sort of becoming, haunted and angelic—that was what she saw here in the fractals of ice and the untouched snow.


	13. Mako

Disclaimer.

General characters, if not written for review drabbles, will be named after something that isn't in FFIX. :-)

I think Branhe is underused.

* * *

It once was love, Branhe thinks: but even love wears away under the flowing stream of jealousy.


End file.
